'Sext me later'

How has social media impacted the sexual choices of young adults? From websites to apps like Bang with Friends, technology is making it easier for university students to form casual connections and share their “hook-ups” online. But has this created an environment where some feel they must participate in order to be accepted?

While hook-up culture has become an often-discussed characteristic of the college experience, not all students take part in it. According to the infographic below from the American College Health Association (ACHA), most University of California, Berkeley students had either one or no sexual partner in a 12-month period.

Many netizens believe social media has increased the frequency of hooking up:

@AJStream #socialmedia makes #hookups and #dating more #PERSONAL they allow people to see/know much more about you than w/out itKristen Fitzpatrick

It's not just young people, but adults as well are using apps like Grindr and various other hookup sites. Social media doesn't make people hookup, it allows them to do so with more frequency and with less class. The mystique and buildup... the sexual tension that makes sex so passionate and worthwhile is gone. That's what social media has done to the culture of sex.Mikey Barnum

Some say even though social media plays a role in hook-up culture, it hasn't changed fundamentally.

@halfghaninNE I think social media is another form of "online dating." You have much more access to people and it's easier to set up "dates"Farrah Joon

@AJStream It seems the whole notion of "hooking up" is rather public. Apps are just another way of accomplishing that.SakuraPassion

College hook-up culture has many critics online. These netizens pointed to negative societal consequences: